I Captured the King and Lost the Queen, But Got the Babe!

[mouschi]

Let me start off by saying, I'm going to try super hard not to turn this article into a book. A lot has been going on! To kick it all off, I did a MASSIVE trade involving a boatload of Jose Canseco cards. The boxes on the right are Canseco cards. The box on the left? An 1888 Allen & Ginter N28 baseball card set.



I know what you are thinking: How very Tanner of me to trade my 1888 Allen & Ginter set for Canseco cards. PLOT TWIST: The Canseco cards actually left my collection! I packed up a large lot I picked up in collections I bought out from a few places, and put them up for sale. Fellow collector Brad reached out with his A&G set, and we did a swap!

I had to send the King Kelly out to be graded, but before I did that, I put it under the microscope just to make 100% certain it was authentic. Yup! 19th century lithography will typically have watercolor-looking splotches with darker rims around them. Thank you David Cycleback for the assist!



I posted these for sale, and a bunch of people were asking "Tanner! You are selling your A&G set?!?! WHY? You LOVE it!" Don't worry - I still have my set! This set was actually my second set, and I did the swap so I could sell or trade them. I still have my set (shown below!) All are graded SGC 1 - the fronts mostly look pack fresh, but the backs have damage. I put my entire emphasis on front eye appeal, so this set is perfect for me. I actually DID sell this set (along with most all of my other vintage) earlier on in the year, but bought the set back - and rebuilt



The back damage on the A&G cards are due to someone having glued them into an album. I was fortunate enough to find an album earlier in 2020, and now have it on display with my set. Check it out!



So, where did the money from the 2nd set go? THE KING:

King Kelly, that is. The 19th century figure who was the Babe Ruth of his time. America's first pop song (Slide, Kelly, Slide) was written about him. He is the first one that people started chasing to get his autograph. He even pioneered various baseball techniques, and transcended the sport into pop culture. The only reason you may not know about his exploits is because television & radio weren't around then to perpetuate his legendary career. Thankfully, we do have books, newspaper articles, and a handful of baseball cards to remember him. Seriously, y'all ... read this.



if you aren't into pre-war cards, you may be scratching your head right now. "Didn't he just sell an entire set with a King Kelly in it?" If you are a person who sees no difference between one old card and another, I can understand. That is how I look at autographed shiny chrome refractor cards of teenagers that so many go gaga after.

At the time of this writing, the PSA POP for the Allen & Ginter King Kelly is 187. Extremely low for such a coveted and historical card. Kelly has a number of different Old Judge cards, but the one I had my sights on is my absolute favorite - and my favorite Old Judge, ever. The PSA POP is just 3. The picture below is from "The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company (1886-1890)". It is an outstanding book that shows virtually all of the *known* Old Judge cards. The picture shows all of the King Kelly cards. 254-2 is my favorite portrait and 254-4 is my favorite Old Judge card.



Here is what the Library of Congress has on file for my two favorites. These were from the Benjamin K. Edwards collection. After he passed away, his daughter gave his collection to poet Carl Sandburg, who, in turn, donated them to the Library of Congress in 1954.



Think about that for a second: These cards were donated nearly 70 years after they were created, which is nearly 70 years ago from the time of this writing! The creation of these cards are much closer to when the Constitution was written than present day.



With a PSA POP of *ONE* (for the notation of Port. Bare Head - Chicago, that is ... there are a few others than have been graded as well) I was extremely excited to have landed this earlier in the year:



The seller of this card happened to have my other favorite King Kelly as an SGC 4.5, and we conversed about it back in March. His price was higher than I was willing to pay, but I lost sleep over it, and decided against going for it.

And then November rolled around.

The Robert Edwards Auction House listed a very nice looking SGC 2.5. Talk about losing sleep! It is one thing to talk price with no appropriate comps in sight. It is quite another when one is actively being sold. All I knew is I was going for it.



There is just something about this pose, his look, and the background that gets me. The background especially, though. The trees, mountains, bushes, lake, stream. It gives us a glimpse into baseball (and life) just a couple decades removed from the Civil War. In fact, Kelly's father served in the Civil War.

The day the auction was set to end, I conversed with the seller of the SGC 4.5, asking if he would be willing to negotiate. He said no, and would actually have to adjust his price if the 2.5 at auction went any higher. That was the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear, but I fully understood. I went back and forth in my head about what I wanted to do, and ultimately, I decided to pull the trigger & lock in his 4.5. Based upon the sales price of the 2.5, the asking price of the 4.5 was more than fair. It was fun to see the bidding movement up past midnight until it ended.

I breathed a sigh of relief when he gave me the tracking number, but as we all know, USPS has had many issues recently. It took nearly THREE WEEKS for it to get here, and even its delivery wasn't without anxiety. The box came with an end that was not fully secured - I recorded myself opening it, because I was extremely worried someone had opened it, pulled the card, and closed it back up. Thankfully, that wasn't the case! Here is my prize, with a close up of the card itself as well:



It is clean, bright, has great contrast, and simply put, is museum quality! It is the best copy I've seen of this Old Judge card, ever. That isn't to say I wouldn't die to have a handful of other different Old Judge cards. If you have a Chicago Cap Anson, call me!

As my collecting habits evolve, I find myself interested in not just having a collection, but collecting - that is, buying, selling, and trading. Constant movement of cards in and out of my collection keeps things fresh and exciting for me. Plus, I just love trying to do BIG things. When I saw a Gypsy Queen Roger Connor hit an auction house, I instantly fell in love. *For all you readers out there, check this out!



I knew it was going to fetch big money, but I watched it like a hawk, and kept looking at my Canseco boxes.

After buying out not one, but THREE big Canseco collections this year, a switch flipped in me, and I even started looking into buying up multiples of certain cards. That was not the direction I wanted to go since I walked away from supercollecting back in mid 2018. Still though, having 10% of the 1993 Finest Refractor run, and 25% of all licensed on card auto jumbo patches is fun to look at, and impressive to say. I had to make a decision - did I want to go down the path of getting multiples of the same Canseco card, or put that money toward vintage? I made the decision to drastically thin out my Canseco collection, which meant culling it of duplicates, and cards I didn't love. It was long overdue, anyway.

From a quantity perspective, I ended up selling about half of my Canseco collection, along with lots of other cards to fund a serious shot at the beautiful Gypsy Queen Roger Connor. I kept the top quality Canseco stuff - the cards I love and the best cards I had, and plan to continue looking for more!

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